Sasha’s high pressure week

By Helen Burns | Dated November 12, 2020

Sasha the 11 year old Spoodle had a whirlwind of a week recently. At the start of the week she came in to Gordon Vet Hospital with a gunky eye, and by the end of the week her eye had been removed. 

Unfortunately Sasha had developed glaucoma which was refractory to medical management. There is fluid that flows inside the front chamber of the eye, between the cornea and the iris/pupil, called aqueous humour. This fluid keeps the eye nourished and maintains the pressure in the eye. It is constantly produced and is continually draining via a small mesh opening inside the eye, which keeps the intraocular pressure in the normal range. When this drainage becomes blocked, the pressure inside the eye increases. At Sasha’s first appointment, her intraocular pressure was 78 mm Hg (normal is 10-25mm Hg) and despite 5 different medications it continued to rise up to 98 mm Hg over the next few days. At this point Sasha was blind in that eye and painful, with no chance of a return of vision, so the decision was made to remove her eye. 

The surgery went smoothly, and Sasha recovered beautifully. Whilst it will take a little while for her hair to grow back, we think that she will rock a ‘comb over’ to cover the socket, and most importantly, she is now pain free.  Glaucoma occurs more commonly in some breeds of dog as a hereditary condition, in particular in cocker spaniels, beagles and shih tzus, so Sasha will remain on preventative medication for her remaining eye, and we will continue to monitor its pressure closely.